United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, U.S. Committee for Refugees World Refugee Survey 2004 - Dominican Republic
, 25 May 2004, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/40b4593810.html [accessed 3 August 2015]

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In 2003, the Dominican Republic hosted about 400 pending asylum seekers, virtually all of them Haitians. There were 189 new asylum claims during the year on top of some 200 left from the year before. There have been no determinations, however, since 2000 and asylum seekers are not allowed to work. Unlike past years, there were no asylum seekers from outside the Americas. There are also about 100 Haitians granted refugee status years ago who remain on temporary status.

The Dominican Republic is a party to the UN Refugee Convention and Protocol, and has enacted implementing legislation. Bureaucrats obstructed the process, however, by requiring prescreening interviews with asylum seekers before issuing identity documents, demanding unnecessary and difficult to obtain documentation, and, at times, refusing to renew documents although no decision had been made on their cases. There is also no appeal or judicial review. The government periodically closed the border blocking Haitians from seeking asylum.

There were 189 newly uprooted Dominicans in 2003, including 91 asylum applicants in U.S. immigration courts and 88 in Canada.